Day Five
On April 5, 2025
Happy Saturday, all, and Happy Day Five of Na/GloPoWrimo.
Today’s featured participant is Moonworld, where the response to Day Four’s “living with a painting” prompt brings us humor and insight in equal measure.
Our featured resource for the day is the online collection of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. There’s much to explore here, but just to get you started, why not peruse their images of beautifully designed and varied musical instruments, ranging from a guitar shaped like the moon to a rattle in the form of a bird that is peering suspiciously at any potential wielder?
Finally, today’s (optional) prompt is inspired by musical notation, and particularly those little italicized –and often Italian – instructions you’ll find over the staves in sheet music, like con allegro or andante. First, pick a notation from the first column below. Then, pick a musical genre from the second column. Finally, pick at least one word from the third column. Now write a poem that takes inspiration from your musical genre and notation, and uses the word or words you picked from the third column.
| “with a hint of frenzy” | power ballad | sharks |
| “the joy is gone” | jazz fantasia | nonsense |
| “smugly saying ‘yeah, I’m better than you’” | folk song | roses |
| “literally go nuts” | march | departures |
| “play terribly” | chamber music | bones |
| “deliciously” | symphony | infield |
| “about to burst” | aria | concrete |
| “crazy eyes here” | overture | butterflies |
| “fade out like my hairline” | interstitial | wool |
| “like you’ve been hit by an arrow” | muzak | vanilla |
| “louder than possible” | breakup anthem | vampire |
| “with contempt for imported convertible sports cars” | rumba | shadow |
| “like a naughty, naughty boy “ | waltz | monument |
| “lord have mercy” | outlaw country classic | clock |
| “improvisatory screaming” | death metal | moonlight |
| “tempo di murder” | novelty song | centaur |
| “as roughly as possible” | fugue | pool |
| “gradually becoming a disaster” | yacht rock | hollyhocks |
| “play like you are about to start crying” | tango | chain |
| “obliterate the choir” | hymn | banquet |
| “like 100 tin cans falling out of a Volvo” | dubstep | snow |
Hat tip to the sadly now-defunct Twitter account Threatening Music Notation for many of the phrases above!
Happy writing!
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